BAYFEST brings world of theatre to area

SANDPOINT — With Independence Day just around the corner, some might find it unnerving to learn that the British are coming — again. They come in peace — to act, not to attack — as the British-American Youth Festival Theatre (BAYFEST) returns to Sandpoint after a 12-year hiatus.

In that time, however, the group has been busy taking its summer program to England, Wales and multiple U.S. locations as a way to up the artistic ante for young theatre students and immerse them in a creatively rigorous schedule of classes and rehearsals that culminates in free live performances and a community workshop.

This year, BAYFEST will bring a total of 16 students to Sandpoint from places as diverse as London and Hertfordshire, England, cities such as Toronto, Baltimore, Chicago and Los Angeles, and smaller towns like Sun Prairie, Wis., and Sandpoint, Idaho.

During their stay, which runs from July 23-Aug. 15, most of the young actors will be living with local families. Not that they will see them all that much — the program will keep the teenagers busy six days-a-week, seven hours-a-day as they bounce between classes and rehearsals in preparation for the free performances they will give toward the end of their stay.

Actor, director and teacher Robert Shampain founded BAYFEST in 1990, and continues to direct the program with the help of professional actor and mime Sam Gold and Sandpoint resident Andrea Lyman, whose career as a music educator spans more 30 years, including training teachers across the U.S. and working as the general and vocal music teacher at the Sandpoint Waldorf School.

Shampain, who still maintains a busy acting career, has taught and directed theatre-training programs with major companies around the U.S. and the United Kingdom for more than 25 years, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, Boston University, University of Southern California, Seattle Children’s Theatre and several others. He last carried BAYFEST to Sandpoint in 2000 and has been looking forward to returning since that time.

Interviewed from his home in Los Angeles, the director talked about the program’s history and its positive impact on the young people it serves.

How did BAYFEST get started?

The idea came out of my being on tour around the UK with a British revival of ‘You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.’  The producers knew that I had already worked extensively doing drama with young people, at places like the Kennedy Center in D.C., and they asked me to work with the local youth theatre in Newcastle-on-Tyne. It was such a happy experience that we decided to collaborate to do a bi-national program that next summer, and BAYFEST was born.

Is the program purely drama-based, or does it take a broader brush stroke in the performing arts?

BAYFEST’s philosophy is definitely drama-based, but we very much view the kind of intensive, professional-level training we provide, especially during the summer programs, as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. We are certainly always happy when one of our participants goes on to success as a performer, but we are just as happy when we have participants who are really there for the personal growth and cross-cultural exchange aspects of the program.

Has the student list always had an international flair?

From the beginning, the idea has been to get together groups of talented young people from extremely diverse backgrounds — rich and poor, many ethnicities and nationalities, as young as 15 and as old as 21 — and guide them to form a truly extraordinary performance ensemble while also really getting to know peers from places and circumstances that might be very different from theirs.

This year, we have participants from inner-city urban areas of London and Chicago, along with ones who attend very high-level schools like the Etobicoke School for the Arts in Toronto.

Is it difficult for students to snag a spot in the summer program?

Because we have so few available spots — usually between 15 and 25, depending on the length of the program — we have never just broadly advertised for participants. Rather, we have formed relationships over the years with a couple hundred teachers and directors working with young people around the U.S., U.K., Canada and a few other foreign locations.

Those teachers and directors generally understand the type of student who would really do well in such an intensive and individually focused program, and recommend specific young people to apply. That way, we only have to decide among 75-150 applicants rather than many hundreds. Also, since we stress that ability to pay is not a factor in our acceptance decisions, we recruit from programs and schools in very diverse areas and provide a great deal of direct scholarship and fundraising assistance.

What other cities have hosted BAYFEST?

We have been in New York; London; Washington, DC; Middlebury, Vt.; Newcastle-on-Tyne, England; North Wales; Seattle, Wash.; Sandpoint; Los Angeles and San Diego.

What was behind the decision to return to Sandpoint?

We had such a happy time here 12 years ago that we have been trying to schedule a return visit ever since. We hope and expect that this summer will go so well again that we will come back again much sooner than 12 years from now.

Can you describe what an average day looks like for the students?

Classes, workshops and rehearsals run six days-a-week, seven hours-a-day, with a break for lunch, and a tea break in the afternoon — a British tradition we have carried on, with cookies, since the beginning!

The day always starts with physical and vocal warm-ups and then is broken down into skill-building workshop sessions where the entire company is learning new physical or musical skills, development workshops for a specific company-devised sequence, led by one of the directors, and specific workshops for the pieces that will be featured in performances at the end of the program.

Is awareness of BAYFEST growing?

Yes, especially as we have expanded our programs over the years to include school-year programs working with students in schools and providing training for classroom teachers on how to incorporate ‘active arts’ exercises in their classes to enhance and extend their curriculum. We have also begun working on a public performance development series with the goal of producing original pieces of family-friendly theatre with adult and young actors that will be performed for the public and at festivals nationally and internationally.

Has the community outreach aspect -- the free performances and community workshop — always been an important component?

Absolutely. Because the summer BAYFEST ensembles are always relatively small, we always try to extend our reach into whatever community we’re in by providing opportunities for other local young people and adults to come and work with our groups in drama-based workshops. We also try to make sure to tie-in to local events, as we are this year with the POAC Arts and Crafts fair and the Festival at Sandpoint.

You continue to balance your teaching with an active acting career — what do you get, personally, out of the teaching side of your artistic life?

I have always felt, even in the midst of a professional career as an actor and director all these years, that if the truck with my name on it hits me today, it’s the work I’ve done with BAYFEST that is the best thing I’ve done in my life. The amount of good that’s put into the world when working in such a concentrated way with young people is only exceeded by the amount you get back from it.

It’s intense, tiring, and requires every skill I have, but I always come away feeling like I have gained more that the participants have.

BAYFEST will host a free community drama workshop on Aug. 13 from 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at the Sandpoint Charter High School, which includes a free lunch for all who attend.

Free performances are slated for Aug. 5-11, including shows at the Festival at Sandpoint on Aug. 5, POAC Arts and Crafts Fair on Aug. 11 at 1 p.m. and Aug. 12 at 11 a.m. and again on Aug. 12 at Ivano’s del Lago restaurant in Hope at 2 p.m.

For more information about the summer program, its history and its trip to Sandpoint, visit: www.BAYFESTyouthTheatre.org.